U.S. House of Representatives - Virginia's 11th District

Local academics following the 11th Districts race say there’s really no substitute for the strength of incumbency.

Despite low public opinion of President Obama and a minimally productive Congress, representative Gerry Connolly has plenty going for him as the incumbent seeking re-election in Virginia’s largely democratic 11th district.

Complete ballot of 11th District candidates faced off in Lake Ridge.

It wasn’t so much a down and dirty debate as a no-frills four-way question-and-answer session. Not that AARP and the League of Women Voters of the Fairfax Area (LWVFA), two of the sponsors of the “Meet the Candidates” series billed the Oct. 14 event as such. Tuesday’s meeting was the penultimate of seven events in the series.

Marc Harrold, Libertarian; Joe Galdo, Green, run for Congress.

Marc Harrold is a self-professed creature of habit. He’s been going to the same bars and restaurants near his Fairfax home for years, where the close friends he’s made there say his great sense of humor and diverse intelligence help him “hold court” and converse easily with anyone, on any subject.

Colleagues say Gerry Connolly’s vision central to productivity.

Gerry Connolly doesn’t have 20/20 vision. His round wire-framed spectacles and cropped salt-and-pepper mustache have long accessorized his look, whether sporting a black pinstripe suit or a billowy navy University of Virginia windbreaker

Q: What do you think are your top three accomplishments in office?
A: * The Silver Line. I wasn’t alone, but I'm very proud of my championship of the Silver Line and the fact that it's up and running and succeeding. It took 19 years to sort of get people to reimagine it and get it built. It was a long, tough struggle.

Suzanne Scholte knows she has her work cut out for her. “This isn’t a race anybody's thinking is worth looking at,” she said at a meet and greet event in Montclair last weekend. “I think it was described as ‘Quixotic.’”

In a bitter and historically expensive battle, President Barack Obama defeated Gov. Mitt Romney, winning a second term Tuesday after grabbing the key swing state of Virginia after midnight. With the addition of the Commonwealth’s 13 electoral votes – as well as those of Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire and Wisconsin – Obama sailed over the electoral cliff with the critical 270 electoral votes he needed for victory.

Despite long lines crowds remain positive.

The early morning activity at the polls was generally more than cordial, with something of a block party atmosphere.

6:01 a.m.—29 degrees Fahrenheit. There is just a hint of sunrise brightening the darkness, but there are already some 50 people forming a line in the parking lot of Herndon Elementary School on Dranesville Road.